1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a disk cartridge which rotatably contains a flexible disk or a hard disk, or particularly an optical disk in a case.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A flexible disk, an optical disk or an optomagnetic disk as an information recording carrier is generally used so as to be set in a recorder/reproducer such as a disk player or the like as a disk cartridge contained in a case.
A conventional disk of this type has been known to be contained in a case with a slide shutter for opening or closing a pickup insertion hole formed in the case and a driving shaft insertion hole at the time of using the disk or not using the disk due to the facts that dust tends to be adhered in operation, the disk is easily damaged and has a large influence of temperature change.
However, when a large quantity of data are momentarily recorded or reproduced in an optical disk or the like, a plurality of pickup insertion holes are required. If the plurality of pickup insertion holes are formed in the cartridge, shutters for simultaneously opening or closing all the pickup insertion holes and driving shaft insertion hole so as to protect the disk against the dust and the like at the time of using or not using the disk are required but there arises a problem that, if a unidirectional slide shutter is employed to open and close these holes, the entire disk cartridge must be increased in size.
A rotary shutter has been considered, but if the rotary shutter is opened and closed by a slider, the coupling section of the shutter to the slider must be disposed outside a disk rotating region. The sliding distance of the slider is increased, and there are further problems in that a shutter opening and closing mechanism is increased in size, the operating distance of a spring for closing the shutter is increased, and the shutter operating force becomes largely different at the times of opening and closing the shutter. If a slider of linear motion is engaged with a rotary shutter of rotating motion, there is a position where the shutter opening and closing forces become very large. Thus, in some cases, the shutter is not opened or closed, and the shutter is deformed by the unreasonable force. Further, there has been proposed a method of reducing the sliding distance of the slider a method of employing a reduction gear and a method of disposing a position of interlocking the slider to the shutter at the end with respect to the slider sliding direction. However, in the former case, a space for occupying the mechanism is increased or a larger shutter opening or closing force is required. In the latter case, the slider force acting direction is different from the shutter force operating direction so that the slider and the shutter is scarcely operated or the shutter is hardly operated. Thus, the constitution is complicated.
In the conventional disk cartridge, a shutter of sectional U-shape is disposed outside the disk cartridge. Therefore, the disk is opposed to the inner surface of the case formed of synthetic resin. Since the inner surface of the case opposed to the disk is formed of synthetic resin, a static electricity is easily generated and noise is easily generated at a driving head due to dust adhered thereto.